In 19 days, Minnesotans could endure the most wide-reaching government shutdown in state history, with little sense of when it might end.

Across the vast enterprise of state government, agency heads are scrambling to come up with closure plans. State leaders have no real playbook for blinking off such an enormous government machine, so they must wade into an array of wrenching decisions and legal scuffles, knowing they risk turning Minnesota into a national spectacle of partisan gridlock.

“We the citizens will lose immeasurably,” said former Gov. Arne Carlson, adding that Minnesota could become a test case for a wave of shutdowns in politically deadlocked states. “It raises serious questions about where America is going and where Minnesota is going.”

If the Minnesota government shuts down, who will be responsible or, to put it another way, who should take the blame? To find the answer, let’s go back to the 2010 election. Minnesota voters, for the first time in four decades, overwhelmingly swept the Republicans into control of both chambers of the legislature. Mark Dayton, on the other hand, was barely elected Governor by the narrowest of margins after a close recount. The message Minnesotans sent was crystal clear, they want lower taxes and less government spending, period. Minnesota is already one of the most highly taxed states, additional taxes would only make the state less economically competitive.

/so take your tax increase fixation and shove it up your ass Governor Dayton, the people have spoken, the Republicans have passed a budget, and if the Minnesota government shuts down, it’s your [expletive deleted] fault!

Diminished funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the state of California has shut down the SETI Institute’s search for extraterrestrial life.

The institute has taken its Allen Telescope Array (ATA) offline while it seeks other sources of funding, it said in a letter to donors last week. In operation since 2007, the 42-radio antenna array–housed at the University of California Berkeley Hat Creek Radio Observatory–scans space for signs of extraterrestrial life.

SETI Institute has been in existence for over 25 years and, so far, haven’t found any evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. California has enough of a gigantic budget shortfall without having to spend money on, arguably, frivolous programs like SETI. If private donors want to pay for it, fine, more power to them, just leave the taxpayers’ public teat out of the funding equation.

/let’s hope E.T. doesn’t now suddenly decide to phone home and then get pissed off at us when there’s no answer